News From The Small
Farms Program At Cornell: Apply Now for Sustainable Agriculture
Grants
Are you a farmer with a new idea you would
like to test using a field trial, on-farm demonstration, or
other technique? Are you an educator looking to
conduct research with farmers as active cooperators? Are you a community member aiming to
connect sustainable farming with community revitalization? If you answered “YES” to any of the above,
a SARE grant might be the right fit for you. Funding is available
to help you test your ideas in the way of
Farmer Grants, Partnership Grants, and Sustainable Community Grants
from Northeast SARE (Sustainable
Agriculture Research and Education). All grants are capped at $15,000. Details
and deadlines are provided below. For
assistance, contact NY SARE Coordinator Violet Stone at (607) 255-9227
or vws7@cornell.edu;
or
Northeast SARE Coordinator Carol Delaney at Carol.Delaney@uvm.edu
or
802-229-2096
Farmer
Grants
Farmer Grants let commercial producers
explore new ideas in production or marketing. Reviewers look
for innovation, potential for improved
sustainability and results that will be useful to other farmers. Projects should
be technically sound and explore ways to
boost profits, improve farm stewardship, or have a positive impact on
the
environment or the farm
community. To qualify, you must be a farm business
owner or manager in the Northeast SARE region. It is not necessary
that you farm full time, but the primary
activity of your farm must be to produce and sell agricultural
products. There is a limit of one application per
farm per year. Grant funds can be used to pay for your time and time
that your employees work directly on the
project, materials specific to the project, project-related services like
testing and consulting, project-related travel,
outreach expenses, equipment rental, and other direct costs. The deadline to apply is November
27th. For more information,
visit http://www.nesare.org/Grants/Get-a-Grant/Farmer-Grant
Partnership
Grants
Partnership Grants allow agricultural
service providers to explore topics in sustainable production and marketing
in cooperation with client farmers. The goal
is to build knowledge farmers can use, encourage the understanding
and widespread use of sustainable techniques,
and strengthen working partnerships between farmers and farm
service providers. Projects must take place on farms or
directly involve farm businesses. Reviewers look for well-designed
inquiries into how agriculture can enhance the
environment, improve the quality of life, or be made more profitable
through good stewardship. You must be engaged in agricultural
research or outreach in an organization like Cooperative Extension, NRCS,
a state department of agriculture, a college
or university, an agricultural nonprofit, or a commercial
agricultural consulting business. Funds can be used to
pay for your time and time that your partnering farmers spend on
the project, materials specific to the
project, project related services like soil testing and lab fees,
project-related travel, outreach expenses, equipment rental, and
other direct costs. The deadline to apply is
November 1st. For
more information, visit http://www.nesare.org/Grants/Get-a-Grant/Partnership-Grant
Sustainable Community
Grants
Sustainable Community Grants focus on
sustainable agriculture as it affects community development,
and successful proposals enhance the economic,
social, and environmental position of farms and farmers. Reviewers are looking for innovative
projects that clearly benefit farmers and were planned in coordination
with them; they also want to see efforts that
others can replicate and that are likely to bring about durable and
positive institutional change. Proposals must address certain key issues
such as finance, marketing, land use, water use, enterprise
development, value-added activities, or labor.
Sustainable Community Grants are primarily for agriculturally oriented
agencies and nonprofits (Cooperative Extension,
NRCS, state departments of agriculture, or comparable entities),
and community development groups with the
capacity and experience to foster sustainable agriculture
enterprise development. Grant funds can be used to pay for
personnel costs, mileage, materials and supplies specific to the project,
outreach, per-diem or consultant costs, and
project-specific long distance, fax, and conference calls. Grant funds can also
be used to cover meeting expenses and
printing, postage, or outreach costs associated with hosting an event or
field day. Any equipment costs must be
project-specific; requests for general office equipment costs are
not allowable. The deadline to apply is
November 15th. For more information, visit http://www.nesare.org/Grants/Get-a-Grant/Sustainable-Community-Grant
